Teach the Torches
by Peripheral Vision
Summary: When Toy-a met Yuki. Or first saw Yuki. Whatever. Very short.


  
  
He couldn't stop staring at the new boy.  
  
Part of his brain was occupied with damage control; it was  
alright to stare when the new student was still introducing himself at  
the front of the classroom even if most of the other students had  
already gone back to looking out the window or doodling or whatever  
they did when they weren't supposed to talk, but watching the boy as  
he took his seat or once the lecture started could be attention-drawing.  
Another part was trying to figure out what the boy *was* - not a spirit  
but certainly not human. Another was irritated at himself for being so  
flabbergasted.  
  
The rest of him was... falling. Or soaring. He couldn't tell  
which one.  
  
The new boy (Touya had missed his name - something to do  
with snow.) seemed harmless enough despite being not-really mortal;  
short and pale with big eyes made even bigger by his glasses. He  
fidgeted slightly with his backpack as he talked in a soft, dusky-sky  
voice about moving here to live with his grandparents. He looked  
familiar in an odd sort of way. Maybe the glasses just reminded Touya  
of 'Tousan.   
  
He could hear the creasing of paper and muffled giggling of the  
girls behind him passing notes, and rolled his eyes. He might have  
turned around and glared them into silence if he was able to move his  
head away from the new student. Touya sometimes worried when he  
watched Sakura play with her friends or swoon over the newest pop-  
idol that she would grow up to be as vapid and catty as some of the  
girls in his class. But Kaijuu was special; had depths to her soul as  
intangible and lovely as the air that these girls could never attain.  
  
The boy had stopped talking. He was now walking to the seat  
one row in front and to the left of Touya, who was mildly surprised his  
heartbeat wasn't shaking the classroom floor. The lecture began;  
Touya divided the time between taking notes and studying the boy out  
of the corner of his eye.  
  
He didn't really need to *look* at the boy the way he was.  
Touya had never felt anyone like this before - the boy was light, made  
only of light, but it wasn't a pure light. There were two... layers to  
him. The outside was golden, drenching, warm, extending to the  
corners of the room. The second was pale, sharp, self-contained, like  
the core of a flame. He would be able to recognize him from three  
blocks away.  
  
So, why was it so hard to stop staring at the boy?   
  
Because, Touya realized with his usual honestly, he *liked*  
looking at him. A blush started in the bottom of his belly, and Touya  
snapped his eyes to the teacher.   
  
Or maybe it was just because the boy seemed familiar. That  
could be it too.  
  
But his gaze kept creeping back without his permission, and  
Touya finally gave it up as a lost cause for the remainder of the period,  
pretending to scribble notes, pretending not to stare.  
  
Then the object of his scrutiny turned around and looked back.  
It was a simple glance around the classroom at first. Then it flickered  
back to Touya almost before it had fully passed him. Eyes widening  
slightly behind the frames of his glasses, the boy tilted his head and  
lightly bit his lip in a way that made Touya's heart try to climb up his  
throat.  
  
And then, gently, the boy smiled at him.  
  
*Sakura*, Touya thought, then wondered why before realizing  
that was why the boy reminded him of someone. He didn't look like  
Sakura by any means, but their smiles, at least, were identical. It was a  
smile of intense but quiet joy, of innocence born not from naivety but  
from some inherent, unalterable kindness.  
  
And Touya suddenly felt dizzy as falling turned into soaring  
and soaring turned into falling, and it didn't matter because they both  
carried him across the sky. Drowning and gliding had become the  
same movement and the movement was holy.   
  
Touya settled down to his work.  
  
There would time for introductions later. 


End file.
